The presently disclosed subject matter relates to a measurement data monitor for medical equipment and a measurement data monitoring system for medical equipment that determine a medical condition of a patient and set setup threshold line of physiological parameter which serve as criteria for determining activation of an alarm.
A heretofore-proposed physiological parameter measurement device is configured such that threshold values used for determining whether or not a measurement value of physiological parameter to be measured is abnormal is previously set and that an alarm is activated when a measurement value has exceeded the threshold value.
However, when only an excess of a measurement value over a threshold value is taken as a criterion for activating an alarm, an alarm is frequently activated by a measurement error attributable to noise or signal artifact or variations in measurement value attributable to temporary physiological fluctuations. In many cases, activation of such an alarm is unwanted from a clinical viewpoint, which often becomes burdensome for healthcare personnel.
Accordingly, in order to diminish frequent activation of an unwanted alarm, Japanese Patent No. 4553406 discloses a method and apparatus for reducing an unwanted alarm. Specifically, the measurement value exceeded the threshold value are integrated over its duration. When an integration result exceeds a predetermined value, an alarm is activated.
A published Japanese translation of a PCT patent application, JP-T-2011-509731, discloses an alarm control method. The term JP-T means. Under the method, consideration is given to an extent to which a threshold value is exceeded. When an extent to which the predetermined threshold value is exceeded is small, a long alarm delay period is set. Conversely, when the extent to which the threshold value is exceeded is large, a short alarm delay period is set. A period during which a measurement value exceeded the threshold value exceeds the alarm delay periods set for the respective extents, an alarm is activated.
However, in relation to the method and apparatus for reducing an unwanted alarm described in connection with Japanese Patent No. 4553406, the previously-set predetermined integral is not necessarily suitable for an individual patient.
Further, under the alarm control method described in connection with International Publication No. JP-T-2011-509731, the alarm delay period set for each of the extents to which the threshold value is exceeded is not always said as delay periods suitable for the current state of the patient.
When setting conditions for activating an alarm, the healthcare personnel encounters a limit on providing more preferable settings for all patients because the patients individually differ in terms of a medical condition. In particular, in relation to threshold values of physiological parameter, there is a tendency toward setting a threshold value that secures higher safety. For these reasons, it is difficult to set optimum conditions for all the patients because of anxiety that safety might not be assured.